Canadian women’s beach team books ticket to Nanjing

CAROLINA, Puerto Rico - Teams from Puerto Rico and Canada scored convincing victories on this past weekend to grab the last two NORCECA confederation spots to the girls’ 2014 Youth Olympic Games beach volleyball tournament in Nanjing, China, this summer.

Twins Nicole and Megan McNamara of Delta, B.C. and Puerto Rico’s Lina Bernier and Valeria Cajigas joined four other pairs already qualified to Nanjing by winning different zonal events last year and early 2014.

“It was a blast playing in the qualification tournament in Puerto Rico and we met some great people,” said Megan.

The powerful McNamaras beat Grenada’s Jomelar Billy and Carsie Paul 21-1, 21-12 and continued with a 21-11, 21-8 victory over Suriname’s Sigourney Kame and Gabrielle Boutersem to secure the pass to the Youth Olympics.

Nicole said: “We are so excited and honoured to be able to represent Canada in Nanjing. We'd like to thank our parents and coaches for helping us accomplish this.”

The twins will join Canada’s Jake MacNeil and Andrew Richards, who sealed their spot in the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China, with a thrilling 2-1 (17-21, 26-24, 15-12) victory over U.S. team Louis Richards and Torey DeFalco on Dec. 08, 2013.

The other female teams from NORCECA qualified to Nanjing are the following: